Staff directly employed by the NHS: as at 31 December 2022
Data on medical, dental, nursing and midwifery staff, as at 31 December 2022.
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Introduction
This statistical release provides summary statistics on staff directly employed by NHS Wales. The release includes analyses by staff group at Wales level. More granular data broken down by NHS organisations are published on StatsWales.
The statistics are produced on data sourced from the NHS Electronic Staff Record, provided by Health Education and Improvement Wales. Staffing levels are best measured by using full-time equivalent (FTE) data. One FTE is the equivalent of a person working the standard hours for their grade. Overall headcount numbers are also provided and used for analysis of characteristics.
This release focusses on the most recent year. Workforce data for primary care services such as General Medical Practitioners and NHS Dental Practitioners are not included in this release and are published separately as they are independent NHS contractors.
All data included in this release is published on StatsWales.
Main points
Between 31 December 2021 and 31 December 2022 (in terms of full-time equivalent numbers):
- the total number of staff increased by 2,699 (3.0%) to 92,442
- medical and dental staff increased by 324 (4.3%) to 7,901
- nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff increased by 759 (2.1%) to 36,576
- scientific, therapeutic and technical staff increased by 802 (5.2%) to 16,207
- administration and estates staff increased by 983 (4.5%) to 23,006
- ambulance staff decreased by 105 (3.7%) to 2,747
- healthcare assistants and other support staff decreased by 72 (1.2%) to 5,885
- other staff (including general payments and other non-medical staff) increased by 8 (6.9%) to 120
Between 31 December 2021 and 31 December 2022, the total staff headcount increased by 2,959 (2.8%) to 106,995.
Summary of staff employed
Figure 1: Number of full-time equivalent staff directly employed by NHS Wales in post on 31 December 2021 and 31 December 2022 by staff group
Description of figure 1: A bar chart showing that nursing, midwifery and health visiting group is the largest group making up almost 40% of the total workforce. All groups except for the ambulance and the healthcare assistants and other support workers groups have increased since 31 December 2021.
Source: Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW)
NHS staff summary by staff group and year on StatsWales
This data has some seasonal patterns. Medical and dental, and nursing staff numbers tend to decline in the period up until August and then increase from September as graduates start. As such, comparisons are made with the same quarter from the previous year.
The annual increase in total staff between December 2021 and December 2022 was 3.0%. Only the ambulance and the healthcare assistants and other support workers groups have decreased in number since 31 December 2021.
Quality and methodology information
The data is sourced from the NHS Electronic Staff Record provided by Health Education and Improvement Wales. Further information is available in the quality report.
The percentages in this release are rounded to the nearest 0.1. Percentage point changes are calculated based on the unrounded numbers.
Data on Sickness absence in the NHS is published on a quarterly basis. Note that there are minor differences in how staff groups are defined between the two releases. These are detailed in the quality report.
Workforce data General Medical Practitioners (StatsWales) and NHS Dental Practitioners (StatsWales) are not included in this release and are published separately as they are independent NHS contractors.
Full details of quality issues identified with the data in recent years are provided in the quality report.
Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG)
The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales. The Act puts in place seven wellbeing goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the wellbeing goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before Senedd Cymru. Under section 10(8) of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, where the Welsh Ministers revise the national indicators, they must as soon as reasonably practicable (a) publish the indicators as revised and (b) lay a copy of them before the Senedd. These national indicators were laid before the Senedd in 2021. The indicators laid on 14 December 2021 replace the set laid on 16 March 2016.
Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the wellbeing goals and associated technical information is available in the Well-being of Wales report.
Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and be used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans.